The former US second-in-command Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as one of the most significant occupants of the vice-presidency in the nation's history. While many second-in-commands were confined to minor or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised enormous sway during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly described as the "true president".
Bush resented that description and claimed the relationship was more nuanced. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in public settings as Mr President, while he addressed him as Dick. Bush questioned even characterisations of their partnership as a collaboration because it implied that they were on equal footing. Regardless of these denials, Cheney found the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
A Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a group of neo-cons that included military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a gathering at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unidentified airplanes heading toward the Capitol building.
Cheney claimed the attacks transformed him, causing him to be determined on retaliation. Along with other neo-conservatives, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he lobbied for a takeover of Afghanistan in an attempt to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then vigorously pushed for the military action of Iraq, even though there was little proof of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Debated Policies
He expressed no regrets about the invasion, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, and not about the enhanced interrogation of suspects apprehended after 9/11. He told CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was founded on faulty information repeated by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It proved to be the correct action to do back then. I had faith at the time and I maintain that stance now."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the position. "I witnessed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, negligence, and recklessness: in the worst case, falsehoods, incompetence, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had called for such action. He had written a memo setting out situations in which US concerns might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had asserted that "the United States should be prepared to operate alone when joint efforts prove impossible," specifically citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the White House generally inclined on executing what his predecessor had famously refused to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the White House, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush bore a individual resentment against Saddam, believing he had been involved in a plot to kill his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the largest hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a portrait of his father's countenance that all visitors had to tread upon.
Questioning Techniques
However it was Cheney who was part of the most vociferous behind attacking Iraq, consistently citing agency briefings that were whether thin or totally inaccurate. He backed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation", the use of waterboarding and torture.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no useful information had come from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and ensure it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a dark force controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? That is a advantageous way to operate, actually."
Commercial Ties
Dispute over his commercial relationships pursued him throughout his time as VP. Even though he had minimal expertise in business but strong connections in defence, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, in 1995 as chair and CEO.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the presidency. Contentiously, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was granted US agreements totaling billions.
It made him rich. His annual income during his tenure at the firm rose from his quarter-million dollars during his time as military head to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth in excess of $20m|twenty
